Monday, July 3, 2017

Due to several projects (including an elementary social studies curriculum that I am developing), I have been on a blogging
hiatus since January. I expect to return in August, when I release the new curriculum and return to this blog...

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Last Saturday, at least 3.2 million Americans participated in the Women's March (including my family here in Boston), which made it the largest political protest in U.S. history. Several news outlets have compiled aerial photos to help us understand the enormity of this protest, including CNN and USA Today. Led by women, these rallies were a reaction to the rhetoric (and now actions) of President Donald Trump and the organizers described them as, "stand[ing] together in solidarity with our partners and children
for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our
families - recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the
strength of our country."

Top: The 2017 Women's March in D.C. Bottom: The 1913 Suffragette Procession in D.C.

As a long-time government teacher and now teacher educator, I have often heard students say that they do not feel that their vote "counts." Having experienced two incredibly close elections in my life (2000 and 2016, where the winner of the Electoral College did not win the popular vote), not to mention many close state and local elections, there seems to be evidence that every vote does count. Yet, I can understand the apathy, especially with the amount of influence that large donors have on the political system. However, my reactions to these students' comments have always been, "Voting is the lowest form of democratic participation. Democracy is really what happens between elections, when citizens must engage in signing petitions, wearing political buttons/having political bumper stickers, writing to elected officials, campaigning for and contributing money to candidates, engaging in civil disobedience, lobbying for a special interest, running for office, and demonstrating through forms of protest" (the Center for Civic Education has a nice list of ways to participate in democracy here). The last one, demonstrations, is particularly important. In fact, there is a long history of political protests influencing U.S. history.

Compared to citizens in other nations (especially Europe and Latin America), Americans rarely protest. When I have taught the right to assemble, many of my students have confessed that they would "never do that." They say that they do not think protests make a difference or that they don't feel comfortable taking their political views to the streets. However, when conditions become so poor or people become so afraid that the basic tenets of democracy may be at risk (i.e. the Boston Tea Party, the Depression, the Vietnam War), the average person may decide there is no alternative than to march. I imagine many of the marchers this past weekend participated in their first political protest. As a social studies educator, the marches last weekend make me feel hopeful for our democracy.

So, how can social studies teachers help better prepare citizens who are more likely to participate in political demonstrations? I would suggest there are three problematic ways that political protests are presented in the social studies curriculum that contribute to this reluctance of Americans to exercise a right to assemble and, by challenging these views of protests, we can better help foster engaged citizens:

(2) Protests are presented as comprised of radicals, rather than "regular" citizens. While it is true that radicals often advocate for swifter change than the population as a whole and may be the first to protest, without regular citizens most protests would not have been very effective. A prime example of this is the Vietnam War era protests. While there were protests as early as 1963, it wasn't until a mass of "regular" students began protesting that the media and government started to pay attention. This "radicals only" view discourages citizens from regularly participating in protests.

(3) Protests are presented as one-time events, rather than a part of long-term movements. Most protests are part of movements extending years or decades, rather than a single event. In fact, protest movements often converge. For instance, in the mid-1800s there was substantial overlap between the participants of the women's rights and abolitionist movements. Today, the issues raised by the Black Lives Matter Movement have some convergence with recent women's rights, immigrants' rights, and gay rights movements. The "one-time events" view discourages sustained political protests. Yet, sustained political protests are more likely to force the government to establish reforms leading to lasting change (for instance, the abolitionist movement had decades of political protests, in the form of newspapers, marches, rallies, lawsuits, and ultimately war before their goal of ending slavery was realized).

To help students better understand this nation's long history of protests, I suggest teachers have students engage in inquiry around the Women's Marches and three lesser-known political protests. After students compare and contrast the four movements' objectives and methods, a good inquiry question might be: "After examining the evidence from the Women's Marches and these three other events from U.S. history, which movement had the most effective methods of protest?" By using these protests, instead of some of the more well-known, students will be able to see examples that defy the above problematic depictions of protests.

3. Anti-Globalization Protests: In the late 1990s, environmentalists and workers rights activist engaged in several worldwide protests of globalization, including the 1999 protests of the World Trade Organization Meeting in Seattle. The movement highlighted several growing concerns related to globalization, including the devastating effects of free trade on humans and the environment, and in many ways these early protests have framed the major economic and political debate over the past 20 years. Here is a link to primary sources form the 1999 WTO Protest in Seattle.

Almost ten years ago, when I was a high school social studies teacher, I was teaching about the westward expansion of Whites (perhaps better described as an invasion from the east) in my U.S. history class. The students were learning about forced reservations, the Dawes Act, and Indianboarding schools (including the notorious Carlisle Indian Industrial School). A student raised her hand and asked, "Why are there no longer Indians in America?" I paused for a second, and just before I began to speak, a classmate of hers said, "There are still Indians. My dad is a member of the Wampanoag tribe." I added that they hold a pow wow every year in Cape Cod and suggested the student attend to learn more about the first people of Massachusetts.

More recently, I was teaching a history methods course to future social studies teachers (many of whom are earning or have earned bachelor degrees in history). My students were participating in a lesson where we critically evaluate chapters on the "Closing the Frontier," which are typical in U.S. history textbooks. I then introduced an activity that they could use with their students to rewrite the textbook. At the conclusion of the activity, I told my students about the time that one of my students asked why there were no longer Indians in the United States and her classmate's response. I then asked students where in the U.S. history curriculum they stopped learning about Indigenous people. Most responded that it ended with the Battle of Wounded Knee (what is most appropriately called the Wounded Knee Massacre). I then asked how many students had heard of the American Indian Movement, the Occupation of Alcatraz, the protests at Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower II, the Second Battle at Wounded Knee, or the Longest March. Very few hands went up.

The problem is that we teach American Indian history in a way that makes non-Indigenous students think Indigenous people ceased to exist after 1890 (the date of the Wounded Knee Massacre). As social studies teachers, we need to re-position American Indians as modern day activists and resistors. We need to use culturallysustainingpedagogy (for what that may look like in a Native context, see here) and we need to bring the teaching of Native history into the 21st century (and frankly, the 20th century).

Below are five ways that teachers can use this week to highlight present day Indigenous activism and resistance. They position Native people as freedom fighters, rather than victims, and highlight the important present day contributions of the first people.

Above and Below: Images from recent Indian mascot protests in Cleveland and Washington, D.C. and a political cartoon on the topic.

Over the past decades, there have been several attempts to get professional, collegiate, and high school sports teams to stop using Indians as their mascots. This includes campaigns against the Cleveland Indians Washington Redskins, and Atlanta Braves, who may have the most offensive logos, names, and chants (i.e. the tomahawk chop) of any sports teams (take a look at this video of a dispute between a fan and protester that made national news or this comedic commentary from the Daily Show). In 2005, the NCAA, which governs collegiate sports issued a policy banning offensive nicknames with particular concern for Native American mascots. However, professional sports leagues and many statewide high school athletic associations have not adopted similar policies. For instance, here in Massachusetts, 40 high schools still have Indian mascots. Teachers should consider using the Indian mascot controversies, as a way to help students critically evaluate depictions of Native people in the media. While sports teams may be a starting point, the best lessons would also examine the depiction of Native culture and people in consumerproducts and Hollywood films.

3. Dakota Access Pipeline Protests

Above and Below: Images from the Dakota Access Pipeline Protests

The recent Dakota Access Pipeline Protests have joined American Indian and environmental activists. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has been involved in a legal battle with the company building a crude oil pipeline near their reservation. Thousands of Native people have come from across the country to support the protest, which is attempting to prevent the disturbance of burial grounds and prevent the pollution of the reservation's water sources. Teachers should consider using this current events issue to teach not only about Indian land rights, the history of the U.S. government breaking treaties with Native people, but also the taking of land for government use via eminent domain.

4. Politically Conscious Native Hip Hop

Above: Hip hop artist Tall Paul

While hip hop has its roots in African American culture, in many ways it transcends race and has become a global music phenomenon. Moreover, hip hop has long been a medium to express political arguments. There are numerous Native hip hop artists who are using politically conscious lyrics to raise awareness of complex social issues faced by Indigenous people. Teachers should consider using Native hip hop to teach students about important issues on and off the reservation, including the preservation of Native languages, drug and alcohol abuse, and youth violence. Here are my five favorite artists:

Above and Below: The Mashpee Wamponoag Pow Wow, held every July in Falmouth, Massachusetts; The Gathering of Nations in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Pow wows have deep cultural importance within many Native communities. They are spaces for Indigenous people to honor their culture through a social gathering of dance and music. They often involve hundreds or even thousands of dancers, drummers, and singers (for more, the University of Washington offers a pow wow primer here). In Massachusetts, one of the largest is the Mashpee Wampanoag Pow Wow on Fourth of July weekend. The Gathering of Nations is the largest pow wow nationwide, with thousands of people attending each April in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Teachers should consider introducing students to the modern pow wow to help students unfamiliar with Indigenous culture see an important way that American Indians are preserving and teaching their Native heritage to the next generations, which may also help non-Native students draw comparisons between this cultural celebration and some of their own.

While teaching cultural traditions, like the pow wow, it is especially important that social studies teachers acknowledge the diversity of the Native people of the Americas. American Indians, Native Hawaiians, and Native Alaskans come
from over 500 different nations with diverse languages and cultures. Imagine teaching about European historical events, such as the French
Revolution or World War II, and only using "Europeans" to describe the
people involved. Teaching Native people as monolithic is tantamount to that, removing important distinctions, including histories and cultural differences, between this continent's Indigenous peoples.

For more teaching resources on American Indian history, check out the PBS American Experience documentary and companion website: We Shall Remain

Instead, this post is focused specifically on the upcoming Ballot
Question 2 in Massachusetts. If this question passes, it would remove the current statewide
cap on charter schools and allow up to 12 new Massachusetts charter schools every
year. If it does not pass, the state legislature will continue to decide how
many new charter schools can open in the future. Considering all of the
negative consequences of the ballot question at hand, I am using this post to
discuss the five reasons why I will be voting NO on Question 2 during this November’s election.

I am writing this post, not because I have an ideological
opposition to charter schools, but because I care deeply about public education.
As a teacher educator, I work with many future and current teachers, who will
work in public schools, charter schools, and private schools. As a former
teacher, who worked in public and private schools (and my wife is a public
school teacher who previously worked in a charter school), I know that
different students flourish in different school contexts. I am also a parent
who lives in the Dorchester
neighborhood of Boston with a child attending our neighborhood public school. I am very happy with my child's school, but I can understand why some of our friends
and other parents in our community choose to send their children to charter or
private schools. I deeply respect parents’ rights to choose the educational
setting that is best for their children. Furthermore, there is
much to like about the original idea of charter schools conceived by Ray Budde at UMass Amherst (my alma mater) and Albert Shanker
(the former head of the American Federation of Teachers), who envisioned charter
schools as teacher-led educational laboratories to experiment with new types of pedagogy and
curriculum. The idea of improving teaching and learning, and teacher empowerment,
is at the heart of my work.

If this ballot question passes, it would have a devastating
impact on our local public school districts. It would continue to weaken traditional
public schools, which serve 96% of the state’s students. This ballot question
will possibly lead to a two-tiered education system in Massachusetts, with the negative impacts exacerbated in our urban communities. Conversely, if this ballot question fails to pass, charter schools
will continue to be an option for Massachusetts’ families and there will be
undoubtedly more charter school seats in the coming years (since the state has still
not reached its legislative maximum, with the exception of a few districts).

Voting "no" on Question 2 allows for more time to be thoughtful in our approach to charter
school expansion within our public school system.

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Labor history is often missing from the U.S. history curriculum. For example, here in Massachusetts, the History and Social Science Framework includes only a few labor history topics (i.e. the formation of labor unions, progressive era reforms, 1919 Boston police strike, and New Deal work programs). When labor
history is included, events that highlight the intersection of workers rights and racial inequity are often missing. For instance, A. Philip Randolph is the only historical figure in our state's high school social studies standards, and my suspicion is that he is also rarely included, or at best a fleeting mention, in most U.S. history classrooms.

In this post, I offer 10 people and events that can be used to help students investigate the intersection of race and labor with links to websites that provide teachers with related
primary sources.

1. Frank Ferrell, The Knights of Labor, and Racial Exclusion

A major controversy
erupted at the 1886 Convention of the Knights of Labor over whether or not Frank Ferrell, a black representative of
the Knights of Labor in New York City, should
introduce the governor of Virginia at the opening session. This is an excerpt from Knights of Labor leader Terence Powderly’s 1890 autobiography detailing the tense moments leading up to Frank Ferrell’s
appearance.

2. A. Philip Randolph and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters

In the 1920s, a group of disgruntled Pullman porters in New York City
asked A. Philip Randolph, a strong
advocate of the rights of black working men and women, to help them form a union of sleeping car porters and maids. George Pullman, president of the railroad company, fought the union, denounced Randolph as a communist and
recruited support from the middle-class Black leaders of the Chicago. The Brotherhood was the verge of collapsing when Congress passed
federal laws guaranteeing the right of all legitimate unions to organize
workers without interference from their employers. Much of Randolph's philosophies on labor and politics was outline in this 1919 editorial "Our Reason for Being" in The Messenger.

3. East St. Louis Massacre of 1917

In the early 20th century, many southern African Americans sought job opportunities in northern factory towns during the Great Migration. The migration quickly expanded the size of the Black community in the St. Louis area, including East St. Louis, Illinois. On July 1, 1917, a rumor spread claiming that a White man had been
killed by a Black man, and tensions boiled over. The next day, the city
of East St. Louis exploded in the worst racial rioting the country had
ever seen. Most of the violence - drive-by shootings, beatings, and
arson - targeted the African American community. The riots, called the East St. Louis Massacre by many in the Black community, raged for
nearly a week, leaving hundreds of African Americans and nine Whites dead, and $400,000 worth in property damage. More than six
thousand Black citizens, fearing for their lives, fled the city. Several prominent Black civil rights activists spoke out against the riots, including this editorial by W.E.B. Du Bois and speech by Marcus Garvey.

4. The Bracero Program

The Bracero Program (translated as "One who works with his arms") lasted from 1942 to 1964 and allowed Mexicans to
take temporary agricultural work in the United States. 4.5 million Mexican farmers came and worked primarily on the West Coast and Southwest. Several groups concerned over the exploitation of Bracero workers
tried to repeal the program. As part of this protest, Leonard Nadel took these photographs of Bracero workers in 1956.

5. Operation Bootstrap/Operación Manos a la Obra

In 1948, Puerto Rico elected its first governor Luis Muñoz Marín who favored manufacturing as a means to developing the island's economy. As a result, the U.S. government launched an industrialization program
known as “Operation Bootstrap/Operación Manos a la Obra,” which focused primary on inviting
American companies to establish factories and business ventures in Puerto Rico. These companies would
receive incentives, such as tax exemptions and infrastructural
assistance, in return for providing jobs for the local population. At the same time, they often had poor conditions for their workers and the flood of U.S. products that reinforced economic dependency for the island. The U.S. government also encouraged the migration of
Puerto Ricans to the mainland U.S. (i.e. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Massachusetts, California, and Florida) and Hawaii. For many Puerto Ricans, this labor-related event is the push and pull factor that brought their families to the mainland. There are many graphs displaying statistics related to the U.S. government program.

Sue Cowan Williams represented African American
teachers in the Little Rock School District as the plaintiff in a 1941
case challenging the rate of salaries allotted to teachers in the
district based solely on skin color. As a result of her lawsuit, the school district did not renew her contract. While loosing the initial case, she would win on appeal in 1945, be reinstated in her position, and spending the rest of her teaching career in Little Rock (retiring in 1974). The case ruling is available here from Morris v. Williams (1945).

7. The Local 22 Strike and the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company

In the 1940s in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Local 22 of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural and Allied
Workers of America forced the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to improve work
conditions for the Black (and largely female) workforce,
who often endured incredibly hot conditions and long hours, while breathing
tobacco dust, we segregated in an area separate from White employees. Besides pictures, few primary sources exist. However, Duke Magazine has an excellent in-depth story on the union and strike.

8. Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta: National Farm Workers Association and the Grape Strike and Boycott

In 1962 Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta founded the National Farm Workers Association. The union would grow to include over 50,000 field workers, many of whom were Chicanos or Mexican immigrants. Chavez and Huerta organized numerous protests, including the Delano Grape Strike and Boycott. There are numerous primary sources available at the Farmworker Movement Document Archive and an excellent documentary film called Viva La Causa.

9. The '82 New York Chinatown Strike

In June 1982, demanding a fair contract, unionized garment workers, who were largely Asian women, went on strike in New York's Chinatown. As a result of thousands workers, many of whom were also immigrants,
marched through the streets of Chinatown forcing employers to withdrew their demands. Within hours, the workers had won the strike. The memories of the workers from the '82 Chinatown Strike have been compiled into this anthology.

10. Hattie Canty and the Las Vegas Hotel Maids Union

In 1990, Hattie Canty was elected president of the Las Vegas Hotel and Culinary Workers Union Local 226. As a result of the union workers' actions and strikes, work conditions and standard of living were improved for thousands of working class people in Las Vegas’s hotel and casino industry. This was covered in a New Yorker article from 1996.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

For the past two years, I have presented teacher workshops on teaching race in U.S. history at the National Council for the Social StudiesAnnual Conference in Boston and New Orleans. The main premise of the workshop is that race is often omitted from the U.S. history curriculum and, when it is included, it appears only in a handful of units (i.e. European colonization/Indian "removal," slavery/abolition, and the modern civil rights movement). Additionally, Asians and Latinos may be completely invisible in the U.S. history curriculum (and may only appear during lessons on the building of the transcontinental railroad or Mexican American War). In these workshops, I ask teachers from around the country to share the many different ways that they include race and inequity in their U.S. history classrooms, which often includes many powerful examples (many of which I had never considered before the workshop.

If you are interested in making race a central aspect to your U.S. curriculum, I encourage you to download the below materials, which I have used during these workshops. They include an engaging opener, an inquiry question, and primary source documents rooted in racial experiences of past events. I list the session title and the topics addresses.

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the United States use of the atomic bomb on Japan. It is estimated that 150,000 people were killed at Hiroshima and 75,000 people were killed at Nagasaki by the atomic bomb. While the use of the atomic bomb is one of the most controversial issues in the history classroom and is still widely debated by historians, it is not uncommon for history teachers in the U.S. to teach the event from a one-sided perspective defending the use of the atomic bomb to decisively end the war and save American soldier's lives. This perspective would be aligned with a majority of Americans, as a recent Pew Poll found that 56% of respondents believed that the use of the atomic bomb was justified. Yet, the use of the atomic bomb is much more complex and any teaching of the event demands an examination of multiple perspectives and should include a careful discussion of the human loss of life, the political reasons that influenced the bombs' use, and the growing historical evidence that the bomb may not have been necessary to end the war.

To help teachers, I have compiled a list of 15 websites, books, and films that dive into the historical complexities, as well as present the multiple perspectives of the U.S. decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan.

The 1983 anime film was adapted from a manga series that ran from 1973-1985. Loosely based on Keiji Nakazawa experience as a Hiroshima bombing survivor. The film and manga series tell the story of six year old Gen Nakaoka who survives the bombing, but sees most of his family die in the bombing.

Originally published in The New Yorker magazine, American journalist John Hersey captured the stories of six people who survived the bombing of Hiroshima. It was one of the first publicly reported accounts of the survivors.

An article on teachinghistory.org by Christopher Hamner of George Mason University discusses the controversy of the atomic bombing, how U.S. textbooks portray the event, and primary sources for students to use.

Public Radio International
has created a website to demonstrate the size of the destruction of the
atomic bomb transposed on your specific location. This allows teachers
to put the damage into perspective.

Starting with the first atomic bomb test, this documentary uses historical film footage to tell the story of the use of the atomic bomb on Japan and the consequential atomic (and later nuclear) arms race between the U.S. and U.S.S.R.

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About Me

I am a Clinical Assistant Professor and Program Director of Social Studies Education
at the Boston University School of Education. I currently teach CH 300-515 Methods
of Instruction/Elementary Social Studies 1-6, SO 566 Developing Historical Literacy
5-12, SO 933 Doctoral Seminar in History Education, and RS 620 Action Research
and Practitioner Inquiry. I have previously taught SO 572 Curriculum and Methods
for History and Social Science Education 5-12, CT 575 General Methods of Instruction
5-12, SO 210 Confronting Persistent Social Inequalities in American Schools, and SO
211 Confronting Racial, Cultural, Gender, and Social Identities in Urban Classrooms.

I taught social studies for eleven years in both public and
private schools in urban and suburban contexts. For most of my teaching
career, I was a high school teacher at Framingham High School in
Framingham, Massachusetts. The Framingham Public Schools are a
racially/ethnically and economically diverse urban school district 20
miles west of Boston with large immigrant populations from Brazil,
Central America, and the Caribbean.

My research and professional interests focus on teacher development
across the career span, including preservice teacher preparation,
inservice teacher education, and practitioner inquiry. I am particularly
interested in social studies teachers in urban and multicultural
contexts, critical race theory, and historical inquiry.